As Live Production: VT Shoot (Practice)

Today was the shoot day for our practice VT’s. Now, initially we were due to film one VT practice as the whole VT group. However, because the roles will be split into A and B (I would Direct half the VT’s) Helen suggested we film two separate practice VT’s. Whilst this was more difficult as we had only planned one VT and scripted it, we needed to come up with a practice for old to new. I volunteered to direct this one to see just how good I would be t directing an improvised piece. After brainstorming a few ideas as a group, I suggested to film one of us walking down the road showing off vintage clothes of an era (80’s) and it the aspect ratio and color would change from old to new. This was inspired by mine and Alexes research yesterday. Alex found a clip form 'Dr. Who' where they film the 1st doctor regenerating by refilling with new equipment and paying homage to the old by fading new footage into the old footage:

This is something that has very much inspired my directing for this VT practice given this section is 'old to new'. The idea it inspired was the same effect in post production but in reverse. So it would go from the aspect ratio of 4:3 for old to make it seem as though it was shot in the 80's and the screen would widen to 16:9 into new in the same shot and the color correction would change to show how an old outfit can be current. 

Rock and Chips
Joan Trotters elk down the street is very much of the era and something I had in mind when directing this particular fashion segment.

I was also inspired by a fashion segment from ITV's 'This Morning' in the pan down revealing text next to each item f clothing it is describing.

We did a small location RECCIE and found an old Volkswagen Camper Van parked on the road. This worked great for the period style we were trying to shoot in. We had Amie walk past the camper van with her dog to create this aesthetic of the time period which was accompanied by this green door which was a shade of greet very representative of the 1970's.

We used mostly tripod shots so that we could easily pan and zoom to focus on the outfits our subjects were wearing. It also allows for steadiness. Each of our subjects had two outfits (mostly borrowed from Callum as we haven't yet purchased the outfits we will use for the real shoot).

We tried to keep some energy to it by shooting it outside which also had a realism aesthetic to it, so it didn't feel artificial. After doing a location recce we found that the lighting inside was also very dim and yellow which was an issue for showing off clothing.  Once the white balance was set u p we were good to go. "The White Balance setting you choose will change the colour balance in your pictures, making it warmer or cooler depending on how the sort of light you're shooting in affects things." (Meyer, 2014)

References 

2014, Jeff Meyer: White balance explained: how cameras correct the color of different types of light. www.techradar.com, (https://www.techradar.com/how-to/photography-video-capture/cameras/white-balance-explained-how-cameras-correct-the-color-of-different-types-of-light-1320993)

Rock and Chips, Series 1 Episode 1, Five Gold Rings, BBC (2010)